MonicaPiece8

The summer school students grudgingly exited the bright yellow bus. “Do they really think this is going to be fun?” Tia asked aloud to no one in particular. “Any time away from that hot portable is fine with me,” one of the boys remarked as the young female teacher held up her clipboard to signal the nine juniors standing outside of the bus. The teens immediately started tapping on their cell phones and setting their iPods in silent protest. Upon completing a quick head count, the male teacher realized that two boys were hanging back on the bus. Even though the male teacher who was only about ten years older than his students, he drew stares when he tried to lure the rebels off the bus in a “cool” manner.  “Get down from this bus with your funky selves,” he said jovially. The female teacher laughed and gave her colleague an approving thumbs-up. “Oh my God,” Jenna groaned openly rolling her eyes. The teachers did not notice, or at least pretended not to notice, the apathy of their charges and proceeded to explain the purpose of the field excursion. “Today is your chance to foray into the world of reality, away from the claptrap of electronic, simulated labs. You and a partner will be testing the Arkansas River water for impurities. This will give you a chance to embrace real science, in the real world, with real people.” “Real fun,” Tia remarked giving her Smart phone a quick glance. “Come get a kit for you and your partner,” the female teacher invited as the male teacher held up a kit in an attempt to entice the students. When the group continued tapping on their cell phones and selecting songs on their iPods, the female teacher used another tactic. “Grab a kit or I will hand them out and pick your partners for you,” she threatened never losing her smile. Youthful eyes looked widely up from electronic devices, and hands shot out for the kits. With kit in hand, Tia turned to the boy near her, “Hey kid, do you want to partner up?” The boy shrugged his assent. Suddenly Jenna belted out, “We’re an odd number, so I am going to work with these kids!” Tia frowned as the obnoxious girl joined their team. The male teacher began yammering on about this being their summer lab score and saying something about the percentage it would be of the overall grade, but his words were drowned out by R&B music seeping from the students’ MP3 players. Finally they were released to study the river. As they slowly descended the bank, they noticed how low the water table was. “Seriously?” Jenna shrieked as the boy’s shoe was sucked into the mire. Tia leaped back to protect her banana yellow flip-flops and sparkly toe polish from the unforgiving mud. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">“Just get right in there!” the male teacher directed from the walking trail above. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">Jenna spun round to exit the river when she saw it. Her scream rang out across the river. Everyone froze because there, sticking out of the bank, was an arm. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">“It’s fake,” the boy declared as the teachers began to make a mad scramble down the embankment. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">Tia leaned in to study the arm and screamed out, “Oh no it’s not!” and ran up the hill past the teachers who were mid-descent. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">A boy from another team drew closer. “It could be a bum. Look at his dirty nails,” he observed. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">“Get away from that biological material!” The female teacher warned, “It could be diseased.” Upon hearing this the teens moved as one entity and stepped back. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">The adults confirmed that it was indeed a human arm and wanted to call 911. The male teacher grabbed Tia’s phone causing her to immediately begin complaining about wanting to get the footage posted on her Facebook page. Others were quick to comfort her with the news that they had already posted it; they even informed her that one of the boys had made a little video and put it on YouTube. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">The male teacher moved away to report the arm without fighting the students’ verbal disruption. Within 20 minutes a police team arrived. The young cop squatted down to check out the arm. Jenna signed as she studied the man. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">“Finally, something worth looking at,” she blurted in her habitually unfiltered way. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">The students reacted to her statement with laughs and crude remarks before falling suddenly silent. The forensics team had arrived. The sole woman on the team turned toward the police officer when he asked, “Do you think the body has been here since Riverfest?” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">She looked back at the arm, “I don’t think so, the victim is wearing a long-sleeved black shirt.” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">Before much more could be said, the older police officer ordered the teachers to back the students up, and then asked for the names of the arm’s finders. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">The students began madly working their phones as the man’s entire body was extracted from the bank. The female teacher gasped, “I know him!” Everyone’s attention shifted to her, so she continued, “He was in the celebrations section of //The Eagle// on Sunday!” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">One of the boys began typing on his Smart phone and looked up an electronic copy of Sunday’s //Eagle//. As the group surveyed the dead man’s smiling engagement photo, the boy remarked, “Well, he isn’t celebrating anymore.” The students laughed despite the fact that the female teacher was chiding them about their insensitivity. The police looked over at the students with disgust, prompting their teachers to move them out of the river bed and load them onto the bus. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">As she stepped up through the retractable door, Tia remarked, “This is the best day of summer school!” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">No one heard, because everyone was mid-post updating his or her Facebook account.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">“Reality” **